


The Art of Avoidance

by Aki_The_Shiftless



Category: Yu-Gi-Oh!
Genre: Gender-Neutral Pronouns, One Shot, Other, Programmer! Reader, Reader-Insert
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-08
Updated: 2018-01-08
Packaged: 2019-03-02 03:03:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,755
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13309074
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aki_The_Shiftless/pseuds/Aki_The_Shiftless
Summary: A.k.a. How to Avoid Your Boss (Unsuccessfully)Moving into a new school with unique circumstances over being an outsourced programmer for Kaiba Corp came with its stress and rewards.Having to avoid said Mr. Kaiba when he's at the same damn school as you was one of the stresses.





	The Art of Avoidance

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [The Art of Living](https://archiveofourown.org/works/6271687) by [DragonSilk](https://archiveofourown.org/users/DragonSilk/pseuds/DragonSilk). 



> Yugioh, its characters, and its various universes/time frames are owned by their original owners. I only own the plot- and you belong to yourself. 
> 
> Enjoy~
> 
> To DragonSilk: If you somehow read this, thank you for writing your wonderful works (and being a huge help in cross-referencing whether my Kaiba's characterization is half-way decent)

**The Art of Avoidance**

* * *

 

 

At first, you hadn't noticed. 

To be fair, for the past month or so in entering your new school, your brain had been riddled with the effects of sleep deprivation and stress. Moving into an apartment nearby the school, arranging permits, making sure everything was running smoothly in the said apartment  (that you thankfully owned) had all lead to your brain practically working on auto-pilot for the first month. 

This wasn't a bad thing necessarily, while you weren't always paying attention in class you always managed to retain enough to do the work. It wasn't as if school was completely a necessity to your living in the future as due to some batshit crazy idea you managed to find yourself in the favorable position of being a lucky as fuck programmer who managed to make a 50 billion download app in both the Apple, Samsung, and Google platform. To think that your sudden lack of absolutely needing a GED had been due to the fact that you were shit tired of notifications hovering in the corner or top, so with some programming magic, you developed an app that would pop out of the corner with an avatar with a short summary of the notification before popping back out again. You expected kinks and you sorted them out one by one, but it sort of exploded to the point where you were now working with Shonen Jump with making a franchise wide version where the avatars would be the characters. Considering the massive amount and the fanbase, you had been working whenever you were free to design each app to the individual franchises since having all in one would frankly be too much. You had a couple of emails a little before that coming from other companies too, which you had taken the time to answer and try to sort out some sort of schedule for working on it. It had worked out on its own in the end. 

Nonetheless, you were excited, while you had a relative liking to the other companies, your reason for moving had been because the co-owners of popular TCG game Duel Monsters had approached you on making one about the monsters in question. On top of that, you had been given permission to work with  _ Maximillion Pegasus  _ for the  _ art.  _

Now, this wasn't an offer you approached lightly, you had to bring over a lawyer before you even thought about agreeing to the proposed contract. Not that you hadn't on the other ones, but you had actually made those contracts with the companies in question with a mental list of what you wanted and what you were told to look out for. But being approached with a pre-made contract was a different song and dance. 

And considering the sheer mass of monsters associated with the game were massive. Kaiba Corp was covering the bill for the servers sure, but it was still a massive shitting ton, the amount of data that one had to hold lead you to accidentally making the first network of a 4 to 2 meter range in length and height that contained zettabytes worth of a data within each block of mysterious black structure. 

You didn't know how exactly- but you knew it was more expensive than everything you did before because there were over 22,000 monster cards in existence. Pair that with each having their own animation, text, and exit technique, and that gave you a necessity for space beyond a terabyte. Considering you also had to think about future additions and updates. Not only that but because you were working with Kaiba Corp, it also meant that you had to keep a close eye on the bit rate. It was good so far considering, but with expansion and updates, you needed to make sure the process was smooth. 

So yeah. It had been a stressful month. 

And that was just about the only viable excuse you had in not noticing that you had been unintentionally avoiding the CEO of the company you were working with on the project. You also just happened to forget the fact that said CEO goes to the school you were going to. 

Sometimes you wondered if your programming skills are just a fluke and in reality you were an utter moron. 

Of course, after making the discovery, you couldn't just turn around and go “Oh hi boss! Sorry I was avoiding you I didn't know you went to this school”. That being said, it was a high possibility that Kaiba didn’t know how you looked like anyway- so that would be its own problem  _ if  _ you decided to go with this tomfoolery of a plan. 

So you kept avoiding him. By the end of the second week of the second month, you practically developed a second sense for when the tall, blue-eyed, intimidating, absurdly handsome, boss of yours was nearby. 

Which, on one hand, was extremely useful, on the other side your “Kaiba Sense” was tingling almost every other twenty minutes that you had free time outside of classes. Thankfully the credits from your old high school carried over, and thus you managed to get out of campus earlier with it. It had been advantageous considering the free time now left to programming, now it was just helping you avoid a person. A very specific, rich, intelligent person that was probably growing frustrated with every instance. 

Not to mention that seeing him was a reminder that yes, you happened to be one of those humans who experienced  _ attraction,  _ and holy shit was he the definition of smart, rich, and ridiculously attractive on some  _ long as fuck legs.  _

You sighed internally, listening to the subtle ticking of the clock on the nearby wall of your teacher’s aid class. Your desk carefully organized with finished corrections on one side, laptop shut closed and set in its bag. Blue uniform just slightly unbuttoned at the top for the sake of it being the last class of the day for you. 

Granted, the blue uniform wasn’t exactly following regulation, but you manage to  _ Leverage:  _ Grifter talk your way into getting your way. 

As soon as the bell rang, you grabbed your bag and high tailed it out of there. 

You had a system, seven different pathways that could be used interchangeably from getting out the front gate to hopping over the fence. (The last was not without struggle but you were already waist deep.) Your mind ran automatically, selecting a path and going with it, going with the flow of the crowd and walking across classrooms. Finally making your way to the exit and wiggling threw two bent bars. 

Out of the school- you breathed, changed your shoes quickly, and started running.

* * *

 

The next day followed the same procedure. 

You dragged yourself into school grounds, body relatively heavy with fatigue as you marched yourself to the homeroom. Your brain was abuzz with a feeling of your brain floating in place, crashing into your seat with a thump. 

The night before had you dreaming of numbers till you woke up with the shrill ring of your alarm. Codes slinging themselves across your vision as you practically memorized technically  _ classified  _ codes for the 1.2 Update version of the Kaiba Corp project. Your eyes burned slightly from staring at a screen for so long. 

You raised your head higher at the call of your name, the school secretary smiling apologetically to you as she raised a note. 

“I’m sorry, but could you give this to Mr. Kaiba? You’re the only one that’s free at the moment.” 

_ Fuck.  _ “Sure.” 

You took the note with a strained smile, sighing before shoving yourself up with a sigh. Bag slung over your shoulder. 

Pulling up a school-issued tablet, you quickly checked classes before putting it away. Nodding at the homeroom teacher and leaving the class for A-1. Kaiba’s class, as well as Duel Monsters fame Yugi Muto, King of Games, along with his friends and third rank best duelist Jounouchi Katsuya. It was quite the lineup but you hardly ever interacted with them. 

Arriving at the door from a near instantaneous walk, you stared at the door before sighing and opening the door. Nodding at the teacher and approaching Kaiba. 

“Note from the office,” You said crisply, casting your eyes aside as you held out the note. Facial expression as stoic as possible as you pulled the tablet back out to check your school email- seeing as you were going to be a glorified secretary this day, working for technically free. 

You felt the paper leaving your fingers and you turned around, ready to speed walk the  _ hell  _ out of dodge as you felt your back prickle along with your neck. Icy cold stare dragging across your form. Restraining a flinch with all of your remaining willpower. 

_ Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck-  _ The mantra repeated in your head as you willed your limbs to move slowly out the door, refusing the oh-so-human urge to turn your head just so to look. 

Walking out the door you kept yourself from settling your back to the door with a dramatic sigh, walking forward and refusing to look back. A small spot of dialogue forming in your mind as an excuse to deny any other messages to carry to the teen CEO. 

You retreated after passing around some paperwork into the music room.

* * *

 

Considering Domino High was a High School primarily specializing in business and arts, the music program was a surprising few. The room was almost always empty and it gave you an opportunity to play music without using earphones while working. The library being unsuitable for this for obvious reasons. 

The silky smooth voice sang the lyrics as a cover to Lovefool in a consistent rise and fall of notes as your brain was coaxed back into working mode. Your fingers settling on the keyboard in a relaxed manner. Black plastic glasses fixed onto your phase with a lense that would limit the amount of blue light emitted from the screen of your computer. The slightly yellow lens coloring your vision just so slightly as you began to get sucked into your work. 

Your name being called almost a rough hour or so later blinked you out of your working nuanced. The music teacher with his homely smiling with an apology. 

“I’m sorry but-” 

“Class is starting don’t worry about it,” You gently interrupted with a smile, closing your laptop firmly with a flat palm. The music ending along with its closure. “I’ll get out of your hair in a second sensei,” 

With a smile he nodded and walked away, leaving you to clean up and leave quickly. Walking slightly faster when you felt a familiar prickle crawl up your neck.

* * *

 

You scratched your head as you stared at the stubborn code, Exhaustion beginning to creep its way back up to the forefront of your mind as your eyes grew heavy. The steady rhythm of Chopin’s Nocturne No. 20 in C sharp minor just barely keeping you awake.  

With a frustrated huff as the feeling in your eyes persisted, you shut the laptop closed, roughly pulling off your headphones with a sigh as your head smacked into the wall behind you. You were in a secluded part of the library, far into the back. Hidden behind two shelves taller than yourself as you sat snugly on the floor. The librarians and students working the library not minding your presence as they walked by returning books to their place on the shelves. 

Your eyes tracked the movement before slowly shutting closed, sleep making its sweet appeal as your brain quieted for just for the slightest of moments. 

* * *

Kaiba cast his eyes in annoyance at the number of people within the library, normally it would be empty this time of day, but he could see girls whispering to themselves despite the repeated warnings of the librarian towards the edge of his vision. 

With a glare and a silent sense of satisfaction as the librarian proceeded to kick them out, he made his way to a secluded part of the library, a table wedged near the wall in between two shelves that were normally empty. 

Only it wasn’t empty. 

He recognized you from the morning, passing down a note without showing him anything more than silence and an eager sense to move on. A less annoying change from the mindless waiting he would normally face with other of his so-called peers being assigned to hand him official documents filled with stutters and ranging from overly pushy to half-assed requests. Before that, he had only seen passing images of you. 

Your head was tilted down, eyes shut and the laptop shut on top of the desk. An open notebook with a messy scrawl circling certain lines of symbols with hastily written notes on the side in a bright blue. Pen hung loosely on top of the page. 

Bags were visible under your eyes as your glasses were in the process of slipping. From the shape, it didn’t look like it was anything graded, but the yellow tint in the lense it looked like it was a dedicated computer glasses. As he looked your mouth was moving in minuscule movements. 

You were mumbling in your sleep. 

“Fucking stubborn piece of stupid movement code…….the art? Maybe….probably the shitty system updates….” 

Then your eyes snapped open in a split of a millisecond, suddenly rising from the chair and Kaiba just barely moving out of the way, “THAT’S IT!”

His own eyes met your slightly shocked ones as you wrenched away suddenly, hastily putting away your things and walking out. A quick mumble of apology to him before walking forward and apologizing to the librarian. Leaving in a speedy retreat.

* * *

 

_ Fucking piece of shit damn it-  _ Your internal voice said as you speed-walked out of the library, face warm as you walked and made your way to your usual spot to hang out during lunch. A secluded corner near the art room that had a plug and a nice view of the school courtyard. Mind buzzing with a mental image of the line of code that was probably the source of your issues with the update. Your fingers itching to fix the stupid thing and move on. 

The  _ system updates,  _ of course, such a mediocre shit would be the sole reason the app update would glitch out so damn much. You knocked yourself on the head gently with a knuckle at the obvious issue that you should have picked up on earlier. 

Not only that- but seeing Kaiba when you jolted awake- now  _ that  _ was embarrassing. Especially considering your handwriting lines of code were open nearby, you thanked your paranoia and the secretive nature of your work that you had written it in code. 

Arriving and sliding down the corner of the hallway, you opened up your laptop and spent the rest of the hour fixing the now thoroughly cursed outline of code that was the reason for your issues. 

* * *

The bell of your last class rang once again as you walked out, finished fixed and more importantly  _ working  _ code sent off to Kaiba Corp programming team as you allowed yourself to relax. Deciding to head to the arcade after dropping off your laptop and changing into casual clothes at your apartment. 

The task finish and a quick change into more comfortable clothes later, you walked past security and card check of Kaiba Land. Heading straight to the arcade. 

Kaiba Land- by all means was not the usual arcade you would go to when you got the itch to play some good old games, but considering your contract for some reason had a membership to Kaiba Land with thirty percent discount on merchandise on food, you would be stupid not to use it often. You were suspicious of it at first, considering Kaiba’s normal character, but you had discovered that it was at the insistence of Mokuba Kaiba that it was part of the contract. 

Which well- at that point it made  _ more  _ sense that the younger, more approachable Kaiba had been the reason for that decision. 

Despite your earlier apprehensions, you deduced that a visit from the Kaibas to Kaiba Land was not often and concluded it safe to visit on the days that you felt like visiting. Despite its popularity, most people found it cheaper to just visit the arcades outside the park, leaving the arcade within Kaiba land to be considerably less crowded than that of the outside. Gashapons greeted you at the entrance of the Blue Eyes White Dragon themed arcade, 

While the exclusive to Kaiba Land gashapons whispered for your yen, you first headed straight for the Maimai machines in the corner. 

After hours of fingers poised over a keyboard, the tapping on the buttons around the circle combined with the sliding across the touch screen relaxed your fingers from their clawed position as you played the game. Unlimited in plays thanks to the nature of your membership, you tapped your foot with the beat as your hands speed across the screen. Wearing gloves would have made it easier, but you weren’t aiming for a high score, more so just relaxing. 

In your hyperfocus of the various buttons, you didn’t notice your neck prickle.

* * *

 

Mokuba watched in silent fascination as your hands move skillfully over the screen. Extended over the two screens as you played on solo sync. Tapping and sliding a finger across the screen every so often as dictated by the patterns speedily flying across the screen. His big brother having met with the current manager to see about two of the arcade games that had been malfunctioning. The younger Kaiba watched as your hands flew across the screen at a particularly complicated set of combinations with your fingers sliding in different patterns. Six Trillion Years and Overnight Story in expert mode throwing you pattern after pattern as your head moved calmly between the two machines, tracking each pattern and hand moving in a flurry of hand-eye coordination. 

It was over in a few seconds with a 92% score, a tired but satisfied smile on your lips as you wiped your hands on your pants. Selecting another song with a simple slide and tap, deciding on Bad Apple. 

“Mokuba.” 

Mokuba turned around at the sound of his brother, “Coming!” 

Mokuba watched his big brother’s expression as you sped through the movements. A small fleeting emotion flickering in his brother’s eyes before disappearing, much to his curiosity. 

As Mokuba caught up he watched Seto turn and walk away to the next place he and Mokuba were at Kaiba Land to check on.

* * *

 

As you finished Bad Apple, you frowned, turning just enough to watch Kaiba in his infamous large, ridiculous white coat and his brother leaving the arcade. 

Sighing to yourself, partially in relief and partially with a shudder, you closed off and went off after the gashapon, long after the two brothers had left.

* * *

 

For the first time in a while, you felt like you could take a vacation to universal studios Japan and not feel like you’re going to need to start sprinting out and catching a bus back to fix some massive mistake in the code. 

It felt damn good. 

As it was the weekend, you held a cup of matcha green tea in your hand, laptop open not to work (thank fuck) but to the latest youtube video you had been watching the night before. The coffee shop was relatively quiet with only the background chatter of regular customers in the outer areas of the shop. You could just go to the upper levels of the building in the patio-in-progress since the owner knew you relatively well, but as far as you were concerned, that wasn’t something you  _ needed  _ to do. 

You were in street clothes, a regular fandom t-shirt covered with a dark brown leather jacket that kept you warm in the cool air. Black Jeans covered the rest ending in converse. 

All in all, you were in a relatively relaxed, if-someone-has-the-audacious-guts- to-talk-to-me-about-a-work-related-problem-I-will-commit-murder mood. 

Which pretty much shattered when a familiar ridiculous coat and prickle at the back of your neck lead your eyes to tall, rich, and ridiculous. 

On automatic, you slid your eyes down determinedly on the screen of your computer, ignoring the continued prickle and instinctual need to start heading to the back and escaping the building. Logic warring with the need to try and avoid confrontation with the one person in the world you admired and hated simultaneously. 

As a businessman and as a creator, no one in your mind could come close to Seto Kaiba who built his gaming company on the ground up, and was  _ the  _ coder for his Duel Disk system and later his virtual reality network that was supposed to go into testing in the next few years. For those reasons alone it made him part of the few who could gain a place on top ten richest asses in the world. 

On the other hand, Kaiba was also a stand-offish individual. You, for obvious reasons, hadn’t interacted with him for long, but on this, you were in firm belief. 

There was also the fact that your brain sort of went into a fit when you saw him and pretty much put you in a frustrating circle of denial for the next few years of your life. 

Given those facts, you starred with resolve into the screen, eagerly waiting for the CEO to leave and get back to whatever the hell he was doing for the day. 

In an effort to keep busy, you switched over to your emails to check anything that might have come up. Your personal email was filled with notifications that were otherwise unimportant, but your work email had an ominous new mail that you had to do a double take on. 

Swallowing, you clicked the email open. 

Eyes moving side to side with the email, you made mental notes and goal dates noting each request and an attached file of Pegasus’s artwork in their original .psd. Which was great since it gave you control over the kind of file it was but also made you mentally hyena laugh in lunacy at the fact that you were receiving  _ Duel Monster Art from the creator himself.  _ Thankfully your rapid find and fix work from the week was a success and there were no more issues that you had to address personally. 

You leaned back after typing out a quick reply and sighed. Suddenly feeling like the weight of one Son Goku training uniform was slipped off in favor of cotton clothes.

It wasn’t that you hated the job either, coding was fun, but the pressures of keeping up with Kaiba’s damn near  _ what the fuck is this shit  _ standard was giving you grey hairs even before your golden decades. Despite everything, even if you were confident that it would work as expected, the man wasn’t satisfied unless the damn thing could be used on five different beta test phones. Not that it was an issue any other time but it was stressful when it was implied that it has to be on the  _ very first damn day of testing.  _ Topped with the knowledge that Kaiba gave no fucks who you were or how long you had been in the company, he was still going to drop you faster than a sack of fucks if he felt like you half-assed it. 

The hilarious part was the fact that you weren’t exaggerating. That was something underlined in your contract. You had highlighted it in your personal copy because of the fact that A: You found it kind of funny and B: It also kind of terrified you to a certain extent. 

Finishing off the last of the tea, you groaned internally at the thought that you would have to break out the calendar again to pen in the work dates. 

* * *

You spun the pen in your hand in your third class of the day, a PE class.

Thankfully, you were just there to help set up equipment, sub in on the occasional absent, and take laps. 

While you kept your eye out on the students who were currently jogging laps, you split your attention between watching and mentally sorting out your agenda for the next few weeks until the work was done. It wasn’t difficult outside making sure none of the blockheads from the other classes weren’t bothering Muto, which often lead to confrontations of bloody proportions. It wasn’t often, but before it had been frequent enough that said block heads and Katsuya Jounouchi were often sent to the nurses before a scolding. 

It was put to a rare occurrence when Kaiba decided to step in. 

You remembered that day and was ready to pull up your sleeves and step in yourself. You wouldn’t say you were exactly _friends_ with Yugi Muto, but he was a decent individual with good mannerisms and a generally nice person. A good acquaintance overall, and you could understand how the sudden change with Katsuya Jounouchi and Honda Hiroto occurred from bullies to a friendship of legendary classification with the general group. Following that development, it was really only a matter of time that something like this would occur. Not to mention it was a four against three (two really, since Muto was generally unwilling to cause harm to anyone) fight. Just as you were about to break it up (and if you snuck in a couple of agony inducing hits-that was your business) Kaiba had stepped in to straight up wallop the four perpetrators. 

You were pretty sure someone lost some brain cells. 

It ended with some of the typical arguments between Kaiba and Katsuya, but overall you quietly slipped away. Dragging the beat up block heads with you for a scolding and a trip to the nurse office.  

Willing yourself to the present, you found previously reminisced block heads whispering amongst each other and making gestures towards the slowly breaking off Muto as he finished his laps. Most likely to go and rehydrate himself. 

To which you thought to yourself,  _ hah,  _ **_nope._ **

As the blockheads went over to a corner, gesturing at the other two nearby. You rolled your eyes and stood up, nonchalantly crossing and going over to stand right outside the place they decided to have their little ridiculous  _ meeting.  _

Seriously, Domino High was a school of brilliant minds and baffling morons. This was removing yourself from the equation since you could have the tendency to be both, especially when you hadn’t gotten a certain amount of sleep. 

“And then-” 

“You guys aren’t doing  _ anything, _ ” You gritted, feeling your hand twitch as irritation began to claw through the forefront of your mind. 

The four turned around rapidly, looking unsure amongst yourselves before laughing ridiculously. 

“Yeah? Well, there’s four of us and one of you- so why don’t you just go run off teacher’s pet.” 

You twitched again, irritation turning into flat out annoyance. A familiar pool of energy surging through your veins as your hands clenched tightly enough that your knuckles were turning to white. Suddenly their faces looked  _ just that much  _ pleasurable to disfigure. The same odd pleasure that someone might get in slamming a particularly annoying character in between a door and slamming that door. 

Repeatedly. 

Murderous urges aside, you breathed deeply and released within a span of prolonged few seconds. Ending with a grin and a casual lean onto a nearby wall. 

“Then why don’t you four dolts  _ make me _ ?” 

A bit of a disclaimer would be that you  _ weren’t  _ really that good of a fighter, but whoever said that you were going to play  _ fair?  _

You were just about ready to play especially dirty (considering with some pause if you would use teeth) when you felt your neck prickle. 

Looking up from where you had just donkey style kicked someone in their crotch and was just about to grab at someone’s ear you saw a strangely unnerving sight of a very  _ annoyed  _ Kaiba. Unnerving because  _ no one  _ should look that scary in  _ gym uniform _ . 

“Uh.” 

His eyes weren’t on you but you had to resist the urge to flinch as he glared past you, “Get lost.” 

As if on cue, they stood and scrambled away as ordered. One person sprinting away with a limp as you stood in a sudden loss of purpose and a big vat of confusion. 

“Uh.” 

Then Kaiba turned to you, “What are you, some kind of idiot?” 

Blinking and a someone just tried to clean a fan with the said machine still on, level of confusion, you shrugged, “It would have been the third time this week that Katsuya went to the nurse and I was just about done with those moron’s shit?” 

Though you meant it to be a statement, it came out more as a question. 

Hesitantly, you added, “That includes the four that just ran away.” 

Turning away, you saw a glimpse of a smirk on the taller’s face. Making the entire situation just that more awkward. 

“I’ll just go back then,” You said, walking off and trying hard not to start running. Ignoring the burning sensation on your face. 

Embarrassment, you thought, was probably the cause. 

(It wasn’t) 

* * *

This, you thought, was why repeated exposure was a proven cure for certain phobias. 

That being said, you were happy to report that you no longer felt the need to run after the next two weeks of you delivering notes to Kaiba. Now all you did was get in the class, pass the note, nod and leave. 

Not even one inkling of wanting to run. You were relatively proud of yourself for that. Not that it was the goal, but this was nice too instead of constantly having to think about which exit you should take next. 

While you were content with notes, actually talking to Kaiba was another matter entirely. 

“Pleaseeee?” The secretary asked. Clasping his hands together. “Mr. Kaiba is terrifying and you seem to be the only messenger he hasn’t told off.” 

You resisted the urge to bang your head against the wall, “There’s no note say this?” 

“I was told strictly verbal communication,” The secretary said apologetically. 

“Why exactly does it need to be verbal?” You sighed, giving up on restraint and putting your fingers on your temple. 

“I don’t know- but Mr. Kaiba- his younger brother said it was important.” 

You groaned, “Fine.” 

With that you trudged out of the office, a funeral dirge playing in your mind as you turned back to the secretary just before going back in. “Are you going to come to my funeral?” 

“I’ll bring fresh roses,” He said solemnly. 

You walked forward, coming to a stop at the class in a moment of hesitation. The apprehensive feeling not unlike the moment school started again just after a nice, relaxing, stress-free break started to creep up your mind in comparison. Only it wasn’t that you just didn’t want to go back to school- it’s that you didn’t want to partake in verbal communication with Seto fucking Kaiba. 

Tolerance, you thought to yourself, was very  _ very  _ different from acceptance. 

With that final thought, you walked in. 

The class turned in surprise as you walked, in the middle of a lecture you apologized for the intrusion before turning and walking next to Kaiba’s desk where the hand rest obstructed his exit. Tilting downward and doing your best to avoid thinking about his curious gaze. 

“Your brother said to call him, and asked that the message be passed on verbally only.” 

With that, you turned around and walked off, painfully aware of the icy gaze that overcame the heated looks of jealousy. 

If it was a look of curiosity, you weren’t aware of it.

* * *

 

You looked up from the clipboard you had been staring at, having moved further down in the hallway from the classroom. After surviving, you assigned yourself off of messenger duty and had gone to do supply inventory. The door slam having caught your attention with an angry Kaiba talking on the phone with who was probably Mokuba. 

The teacher had most likely allowed Kaiba to call in-class via death glare, you had concluded as you quickly looked back down at the clipboard. 

You heard a distant growl before deciding it safe to make a quiet retreat. 

Just as you made your first step to safety, your pants buzzed with your phone. 

You froze, thoughts of the angry billionaire on the other side of the hallway forgotten as you quickly fetched the phone and spoke. Your business phone that you had gotten express permission to be able to answer regardless of where you were in class because it was  _ the phone,  _ and if you could you would have painted the damn thing red from how serious of a situation it had to be in order for the thing to  _ ring _ . 

“What happened?” You said, serious and in crisp English. 

“Why the hell are  _ you  _ answering this number?” 

You frowned, “Mr. Kaiba this is the phone I  _ specifically  _ linked to handle business calls, why else would I answer?” 

“Because I’m right behind you.” 

You froze, stiff as a board.

Turning around was probably the  _ hardest thing you’ve ever done.  _

“Um-” You turned the phone off, fully facing the tall, very scary, very  _ annoyed  _ Seto Kaiba. “What happened?” 

He turned around and walked off. 

As you froze, you suddenly grew very scared when he turned back around looking like the  _ angriest  _ guy around. 

“Are you more incompetent than I realized or are you coming?” 

With a blink, you sprinted towards his direction.

* * *

 

Sitting more than awkwardly in the spacious window, you turned to Kaiba, “What happened then?” 

“Kaiba Corp was hacked.” 

You almost boggled at that, hacked? What the actual-

“And the data?” 

“Protected, the hacker only managed to get through the first firewall before the alarms went off, and he didn’t get much.”

“So why do you need me for?” 

“Because” He looked at you with such a stare that you were almost convinced that you were being interrogated. “You used to be a white-hat hacker.” 

And of  _ course  _ he would do his research-

* * *

 

After meeting with Mokuba along with a whirlwind of meetings, warnings, confidentiality agreements (to which you were almost offended by given the monstrosity of paperwork you read and signed before accepting the job as a  _ programmer),  _ you found yourself in Kaiba’s main office staring at a computer with data on it. 

It was true that you  _ used  _ to be a white-hat hacker, but you retired from that stress-inducing of a job a  _ long time ago.  _ Programming is where you started and programming is what you were determined to do to keep yourself  _ alive.  _

“You realize that I’ve retired from this a long time ago,” You said seriously, combing through the data records for breadcrumbs. 

“You were also one of the best,” Kaiba glared at you- for what you didn't want to know. “It was one of the reasons why I  _ considered  _ hiring you.” 

You grumbled silently at that, you didn’t even include it in your freaking  _ resumé  _ for crying out loud. 

Then you caught a string of data that made you sigh. 

Damn it. 

“Alright, so the attack was planned,” You gave Kaiba something very close to a stink eye. “But you knew that already didn’t you? It’s why you got me on instead of any of the other white-hats you’ve got in your company’s claws.” 

You turned back to the computer, zooming on the data and reading it carefully, grumbling to yourself, “Because of  _ course,  _ you wouldn’t miss these strings of attacks that seemingly bounced off the first firewall. Obviously, it’s a test of security, these things are too spaced out evenly for it to be anything less. Which means this person was testing the waters before they cast out anything. You’re trying to find out why this person decided to attack now of all times.” 

Your lip twitched down, “But despite this sophisticated attack pattern this person is also a world class idiot.” 

“Surprising. You’re not stupid after all.” 

You rolled your eyes in a small burst of confidence, “You wouldn’t have hired me if I was.” 

“I always wondered if you were capable of being anything more than a messenger.” 

“And I knew you had a capacity for being a calculating mastermind in the brutal game of business and card games,” You muttered under your breath, now fully submerged in the focus of finding this guy and finishing it.

Watching dispassionately as the culprit, who had been a white-hat under Kaiba’s hire previously, was dragged away by private security. Internally groaning on the stupidity of the hacker in question for using the same damn  _ username.  _

Didn’t even  _ try  _ to bounce the IP address, seriously- 

Besides that- you turned to the man next to you. 

“And you- what the hell was with the ‘why are  _ you  _ answering’- You knew who I was!” 

Kaiba rolled his eyes at you, “I knew who you were- I wasn’t aware that you happened to be the programmer that Mokuba had hired and managed single-handedly save Programming’s ass.” 

“What the- so  _ Mokuba  _ was technically my boss?” You said. “I’ve been avoiding you for  _ nothing _ ?” 

“You came recommended, and I  _ am  _ your boss,” Kaiba said with a narrow of eyes. “What the hell are you talking about?” 

“I’ve been avoiding you for months! I thought I accidentally ignored you for the first month of me coming to that weird as fuck school!” You threw your hands up. “I’ve been in a mental war of words with  _ myself  _ arguing whether it was fear or a ridiculous amount of attraction that was making me do this shit- do you know how  _ confused  _ I was?!” 

“How the hell am  _ I  _ responsible for whatever goes on in your head?” 

Ignoring the smirk on his lips and the red on your face, you reached up to his school uniform and tugged him down to your height. Also ignoring the look of genuine surprise coming from the usually Mr. Cool-As-Ice-and-Hot-as-Fire. 

“Because you happened to be the  _ smartest,  _ most  _ fucking attractive,  _ **the** _ most  _ **_temperamental_ ** _ ,  _ the most  _ work demanding boss,  _ and just straight up  _ alpha as fuck  _ person I’ve ever known and I fucking  _ work for you,”  _ You released him and turned around. Feeling the red creep up and horror making you twitch. “And now I’m about to get fired.” 

“Don’t be stupid.” 

You turned to see him straighten slightly, a blush on his cheeks. 

“Huh?” 

“We’re going out for lunch.”

You must have stared at him for almost five minutes before he sighed and had to drag you off. 

* * *

A/n: ALIRGHTY. SO I DON'T HAVE AN UPDATE FOR  _THE SILENCE_ BUT UM- I'VE BEEN WORKING ON THIS OVER MY WINTER BREAK AND I HOPE A ONE SHOT MAKES UP FOR IT. 

Yelling aside, I'm kind of thinking of making this a one-shot series that is right now mentally called:  _The Arts of Getting Along With Kaiba._ Inspired by DragonSilk's  _The Art of Living_ (from which, as you can guess, I was inspired for in the title and may or may have an angsty fic inspired by the latest chapter sitting in my google docs). If you haven't heard already, go check it out- their works are truly ones that will make you snort with laughter and mentally sob with angst. Complete with heart palpitations and heart attacks (well no, but my gut clenched up sometimes). Because honestly, I find myself writing down one-shots when I'm at school so that might be a viable thing. We'll see what happens in the future. 

Update for  _The Silence_ is coming soon! Hopefully- once I sort out just how the hell I can get to the ending I have written down/figure out how to fabricate a certain scene in words. I've pictured a bunch of times, but when it comes to describing that's where my issue lies. Frustrating as hell but here we are. 

**Dedications to:**

**DragonSilk: __**_I've already waxed my poetry but if you're looking for more neat-o reader inserts, check out **Stellalana,** and go and find Lunaescence if you've got the time. They've got really good Kaiba reader inserts and talented righters like  **Sound of Saphire** and while some works are sadly lost due to the site going down some years ago, it's still a well of awesome works!_

 


End file.
